


The Winds of Winter

by hallieCB3



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Jonerys, game of thrones season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 12:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11943756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallieCB3/pseuds/hallieCB3
Summary: Daenerys Targaryen reflects over the events she had faced since the moment she sailed to Westeros to recover her rightful claim as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.





	The Winds of Winter

 

The breeze touched softly her face while she was standing there on her ship, with the Targaryen sigil painted over the flags, looking forward to the horizon and what it was coming for her. She was leaving Meereen and the people she had freed, in the recently renamed Bay of Dragons. She was leaving behind her struggles to get where she was now, her painful memories, her path from being sold like a broodmare so her brother would get closer to fulfill his birthright to become the Queen she was now, in the path to fulfill herself.

Behind her the people who supported her claim and believed in her. Such a heterogeneous group of people coming together behind her vision of breaking the wheel of power struggles once and for all in Westeros. Old and new advisors, either coming back to familiar lands or venturing to unknown territory. She could say she was practically in the middle. She had been born in Dragonstone, the imposing cliff island near the shores of Westeros; nevertheless, she had never been there before since she left, being just a baby. It was going to be for sure an interesting homecoming for her.

She saw on the sky the three imposing figures of her dragons flying through the same path her ships were. Following them, there was a huge amount of ships with her armies, both the Dothraki and the Unsullied, who were following on her quest and would kill and fight in order to serve her as their chosen Queen, as their true Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. Also the ships provided by the Greyjoys and other allies from Westeros, who wished her to take over her rightful claim and recover the Iron Throne.

Two people were missing on this trip: Ser Jorah and Daario. The two ones who risked it all to go rescue her from the Dothraki horde that had taken her prisoner, would probably not be there to see her become the ruler of Westeros. She shuddered. Ser Jorah was sent away on a quest to look for a cure for his greyscale: she truly hoped he'd find it. He had been there for her during most of her journey, even when the shade of betrayal had darkened his loyalty, he had come back and looking forward to keep serving her. And Daario... well, she decided to cut off that tie with the sellsword who worshiped her in all accounts. She decided and was strongly advised by Tyrion to leave him behind. And after the deal was cut and her decision made known to the leader of the Second Sons, she realized she was troubled. Not because she was suffering to leave her former lover behind: it was more of concern about not feeling anything about it. And she found no consolation in Tyrion, who misunderstood her expressed concern as if she was worried nobody would love her again. Quite the contrary. She was afraid of not being able to love someone again. Maybe the curse of the witch that took away her sun and stars took away as well her ability to feel again something like she did once before.

She opened her eyes and noticed the dim light coming from the candles around her bed. She was dreaming about the time she was sailing thru the Narrow Sea going to Westeros to claim her birthright as the rightful Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. It seemed like an eternity from then till now, where she was sailing as well, but to face a greater war to fight for the living against the Army of the Dead. Her claim for the throne had become a lesser priority due to that true danger to her realm.

Not only that had changed since her leaving Essos. Seeing her three children flying over the horizon on her dream gave her a pang of sadness about the recent loss of one of them, Viserion to the Night King. In part she could tell herself it was needed to go through this pain seeing one of her children die so she could be aware of the true enemy she would have to face, more than the Lannisters, more than conquering the Seven Kingdoms back into Targaryen rule. But there were moments she would look back at her journey and remember all those moments she spent with her dragons while they were growing through her chosen path. Anyhow, her sadness would turn into extreme resolution that she needed to fight and help defeat the Night King and his army of undead.

But she was not alone on this quest. She lifted her eyes and saw the sleeping handsome face of the King of the North, who was holding her on a sweet embrace on her bed while she was resting over his chest. With her fingers, she started tracing softly the curved scar he had over his heart.

Jon Snow had decided to bend the knee and declare his allegiance to her as his true Queen, even at the moment she would have expected him to keep silent about it. When the King of the North refused to give his word to Cersei Lannister, part of her felt flattered by his stupid sincerity but the other part felt angry about it. One of her dragons had died just to make sure they could have a truce to go and fight the enemy together!!

And even when she expressed her anger about it to him, part of her was mad actually at herself for not having believed him back when they met and he came to Dragonstone to ask for her help to defeat the White Walkers. He had trusted in her by showing up at her island and not being willing to bend the knee, knowing that he could be executed, but instead put his faith on her. Why she was so blind not to do the same? Maybe because she didn't know him. All she knew was that he was a bastard of the House Stark who had been chosen as the King in the North after defeating in battle those Bolton usurpers who had taken over the Stark's ancestral hold, Winterfell. But as the time passed during his stay at Dragonstone, she learned more about him and his personality, and found that they had more in common than what she thought. And that growing mutual admiration became something more, even when she refused to admit it.

Maybe she realized the truth when he left to go on that deadly mission. Or maybe even earlier, when he declared he would join Ser Jorah to go North and hunt a wight. She then realized a subtle pang in her chest when she realized he would be in danger and if he left, she might not see him again. That's why she came with that indication that she had not allowed him to go. And then, that Northern fool would have the audacity of standing up to her and rebuke that he didn't need her permission, since he was a king. A King who decided to trust her, a stranger, and he was just asking the same level of trust from her. She could just manage to nod approving, and with that nod she realized she had found her match.

When she was standing at the Dragonstone beach looking at him leaving with the other men, she briefly thought of her farewell from Daario in Meereen, and her recent farewell from Jorah. Two men who would worship the sole of her feet, and their farewell had not the same emotional weight than the one from that stubborn proud Jon Snow, who even joked that if he didn't come back, she would not have to deal anymore with the King in the North. The only words she could manage to say were "I've grown used to him" while her gaze lingered in his dark eyes, trying to read into them to see what she could find there. He left, and she kept wondering for days about her feelings. He tried to hide her worries from Tyrion, her Hand of the Queen, but he was clever to point out and call her bluff out. They changed the subject to discuss their oncoming summit with the usurper Queen, but her concern about Jon Snow kept hindering the efforts of her Hand to keep working towards the future of Westeros if she pretended to in fact break the wheel.

But then that faithful raven came from Eastwatch asking for her help. She didn't think twice. She would not listen the words of wisdom from Tyrion about how she was risking everything, and worst of if, if she thought about it, he was right. All this time struggling to get to Westeros and she was leaving her fate at the hands of a stranger, trusting his words and flying far, far away just to rescue him! And yes, one of her faithful advisors was in danger too, but she had to admit it, her main concern was that stubborn Northern fool of a hero named Jon Snow. Even in the midst of her grief for losing Viserion, she was standing there, at the top of the Wall looking up North to see if there was a chance he would have survived. "A bit longer", she mused to her faithful Ser Jorah, who was obviously concerned about his Queen. And she just walked away, defeated and starting to digest the fact that she had faced two great losses, when the sound of a horn made her go back to where she had been standing just an instant ago. She saw the lone figure of a horse, carrying a half-dead man and she felt the air coming back to her lungs. Later then she saw him being taken care by Davos and his men, making sure he was alive, and could avoid noticing the scars over his chest. "A knife in the heart" made sense now. She felt a mix of anger and grief over the fact that he could have died before meeting her. She didn't know how it happened, who did it or how did he survive, but had he died she would not have met him. She would have carried on her fight with the Lannisters over the Seven Kingdoms without knowing the danger all of those Kingdoms and her subjects would face soon.

But he had survived so far, and she was circling her fingers over the same scar. She didn't know what would be in store for them once they reached Winterfell, but in the mean time they could make the most of it. Winter had already arrived, and what mattered was that they would face whatever was coming their way together.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This is basically a self-reflection piece from the POV of Daenerys. After watching the Season 7 Finale, I thought on how we saw her last season finale when she was sailing to Westeros and how many things have changed so far between The Winds of Winter and The Dragon and The Wolf. This is my first Game of Thrones piece so I hope you guys like it!


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